


Day 22: Into the Bunker

by PineTrain



Series: 40 Days of Pinecest [22]
Category: Gravity Falls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 23:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10545824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineTrain/pseuds/PineTrain





	

Dipper entered the holding room and set down his supplies to prepare for cleaning. While the bunker had been refurbished years ago for the purpose of moving Ford’s experiments further from the Mystery Shack, it saw very little use during most of the year. The Stans usually only spent the summer here so they could visit with their niece and nephew but the rest of the year they were off adventuring. McGucket would come by from time to time but those visits only added to the cleaning required to make the place usable.

It’d become something of a tradition for the family to clean the bunker the first week the twins were back. While it was mainly meant for Ford to use, the others would often come by to help him or use it for their own purposes. They’d added a few additional rooms for each member of the family and all that new space could get quite dusty.

Dipper had always claimed the holding room as his responsibility though. Various devices and cages meant to hold beasts of any conceivable type for the purpose of study. They were all temporary containers though, since it’d be inhumane to keep them longer than the summer. As such, it was important to make sure they were all in working order before use. And before that, to make sure they were clean.

The temporary nature of the others wasn’t shared by one device in particular, however. The shapeshifter’s cell was effectively permanent after Ford reinforced it and added every preventative measure he’d learned in a dozen different dimensions. Maybe one day they could release it, but for now it was too risky.

Dipper set his hand on the cold glass that sat between him and his own face, contorted in fear. This was why he insisted he clean the holding room, so he could have this moment where everyone else was busy elsewhere and he could contemplate the passage of time. How young his twelve year old self looked. How different things had been back then.

He remembered how it was then that his chances with Wendy were squashed. At least for that summer. Not that he had a problem with just being friends, but after keeping in long distance contact over the rest of the year he found that absence can indeed make the heart grow fonder. Yet nothing happened the second summer either, to his disappointment.

The third year, he’d been even more hurt to arrive in Gravity Falls knowing Wendy already had a boyfriend of several months. But it turned out the boy was pretty cool and they actually became fast friends after a few camping trips . Still, those first few weeks were kind of hard.

Mabel really helped him out a lot during that time. He might go out on a walk to be alone when she’d invite herself to join him as irritated as he was at first, he appreciated her presence. He could be sulking in a room alone when she’d burst in with a Narf gun and blast him, tossing another to him so they could battle it out. And sometimes she would just come home a bit early from Candy or Grenda’s house, some fast food in hand that they could munch on while they watched TV.

Somehow none of these moments were ever intrusive. Technically intrusive in that he was trying to be alone, but she never came when he truly wanted to be alone. They were times when he thought he did, but the second she appeared he knew he didn’t. Some might call it twin telepathy, but Dipper didn’t put stock in that. Not in this case. She just knew him in and out and could instinctively tell when he needed her and when he didn’t.

This was now the first year that he’d cleaned the room and hesitated in front of the shapeshifter for a different reason than before. It still made him think of Wendy, but now it also made him think of someone else in the same way the little boy in front of him thought of the redhead years ago. A pipe dream, to be charitable.

As Dipper wiped down the machine he gave a hollow laugh at the absurdity of a thought he’d just had. What if he could convince the shapeshifter to say what he wanted Mabel to say?


End file.
